Notwithstanding hysterical rhetoric from the White House, the bureaucracies, and the various pro-spending lobbies in Washington, the sequester does not mean “vicious” or “draconian” spending cuts. I wish that was the case. All it does is restrain spending so that it…
Daily Analysis
The OECD’s New Assault on Tax Competition Will Enable Higher Taxes and Bigger Government
Hardly anyone stands up for taxpayers. It’s the classic problem of concentrated interests and defused costs. Those who benefit from profligate government spending are strongly motivated to lobby for their pet handout. But every individual bit of waste only adds…
The Laffer Curve KO’s the IRS
What’s the revenue-maximizing tax rate? Since I’m interested in the growth-maximizing tax rate instead, I don’t think that’s even a legitimate question. That being said, it seems like everyone – both on the left and on the right – should agree that it makes no sense…
The Corrupt Nexus of Big Business and Big Government
I did a video several years ago on the link between big government and big corruption, and I periodically revisit the issue by citing disgusting examples of sleaze and cronyism ranging from the Export-Import Bank to the racial spoils scam in Alaska. The folks at Learn…
Special Employment Rights for Crooks: Our Tax Dollars at Work
As an economist with a boring personality (sorry to be redundant), I sometimes focus on numbers. And when contemplating the cost of regulation and red tape, there are some numbers that should frighten all of us. Americans spend 8.8 billion hours every year filling out…
Grilled about Cayman Investments, Jack Lew Chooses the I’m-a-Moron Defense
Every so often, you get a “teaching moment” in Washington, and we now have an excellent opportunity to educate lawmakers about the “offshore” world because President Obama’s nominee to be Treasury Secretary has been caught with his hand in the tax haven cookie jar….
Marketplace Fairness Act Targets Domestic Tax Competition
Like so many bad ideas in Washington, the recently introduced “Marketplace Fairness Act” has bipartisan support. But there’s nothing fair about allowing states to reach outside their borders to tax businesses headquartered elsewhere. In fact, the…
FATCA Overreach Will Sabotage American Global Competitiveness
If Congress set out right now to craft a law to sabotage the global competitiveness of the US economy, they’d have trouble coming up with one better than what they passed in 2010 in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
The Great TCI Anti-VAT Mutiny of 2013
The value-added tax is a pernicious levy. It’s basically a hidden form of national sales tax, imposed every time a transaction occurs at any stage of the production process. But what irks me about the VAT is not its design (indeed, it shares some key characteristics…
Another Hypocritical Leftist Caught with His Hand in the Tax-Haven Cookie Jar
I’m a huge fan of so-called tax havens. I’ve been working for more than 10 years to protect and promote the values of tax competition, fiscal sovereignty, and financial privacy. The bureaucrats at the OECD even threatened to have me tossed in a Mexican jail because I…